Les Exterminateurs de l'an 3000

Insanely entertaining post-apocalypse garbage from those always dependable Italians is good for some excitement and *many* laughs. Robert Iannucci, looking like American actor Martin Kove, stars as sleazy lone wolf "Alien", roaming the desert landscapes and making trouble. He makes the acquaintance of the young Tommy (Luca Venantini), who was tagging along with others of his community on the quest to obtain water. You see, in this vision of the future, H2O has become the most precious commodity. What Alien really wants to do is turn a profit, and it remains to be seen if he'll really step up to the heroic plate.

Iannucci is an enjoyably gruff protagonist, and the supporting cast is just tremendous fun. Tommy, who definitely takes his lumps, turns out to have a most amusing secret, leading to some priceless gags. The movie co-stars the beautiful Alicia Moro as Trash, the excellent Luciano Pigozzi as "Papillon", Eduardo Fajardo as the Senator, Beryl Cunningham as Shadow, and the true scene stealer in this gloriously goofy escapist flick, Fernando Bilbao as Crazy Bull. Being made to utter some hysterically dumb lines, and looking like he wandered off the set of "The Road Warrior" to appear in this, he provides great entertainment value. Some viewers may find the sequence in which Tommy gets drunk to be in poor taste.

Production & costume design and music are good, if rather standard, for this sort of thing. This movie is far from being original, but it still manages to show its audience a good time. The action is often genuinely exciting (dig those vehicle stunts!), and there's one hilarious, amazing segment in which Alien and Trash infiltrate the building housing the water source and must contend not only with booby traps (shades of Indiana Jones), but mutated guards wielding flamethrowers.

If you can't get enough of the whole "post nuke" genre, then don't pass this one up. It's a *real* hoot.

Eight out of 10.

Comparing this with "Mad Max 2" in terms of quality is akin to a cage match between a donkey and a grizzly bear; the outcome is a foregone conclusion. If however, you were to compare this with "New Barbarians", or "1990 The Bronx Warriors" where technical ratios are more equal, then "Exterminators" isn't a bad yarn.

The premise concerns a post apocalyptic world in which water is scarce, and various territorial tribes emerge to claim what little water there is in isolated wells. Crazy Bull is the main adversary and his vicious sidekick Shadow (Cunningham) packs a claw that commands respect. It's a shame that Cunningham didn't find greater exposure in her film career, as she showed a lot of promise and has a decent cinema legacy.

The visual effects, as expected, are the heroes, including the trailblazing stunt-work in which dune buggies leap and pirouette in the air, while bodies are flung around like rag dolls. There's plenty of gruesome carnage in keeping with the sub-genre. Scripting is minimal, although as most of the story is essentially borrowed, grafted and re-imagined, it's not altogether critical for success. I've seen a few of these post-apocalypse biker pictures, some with more recognisable faces and more sophisticated production values, but "Exterminators" holds its own and so if this is your cup of tea, drink up.

Solid Italian Max Mad ripoff has tons of tricked our car and motorcycle desert chases, along with some pretty good Road Warrior copycat costumes, which is fun, even if the action is nothing compared to George Miller's groundbreaking films. Instead of fuel, the survivors of this post apocalyptic hell are in search of water. Though lacking the massive production values of Kevin Coster's "Waterworld" or even Miller's "The Road Warrior," director Giuliano Carnimeo (billed as Jules Harrison) manages to infuse some decent thrills out of his minuscule budget and the corny script from the same writing team who brought you the equally silly "1990: The Bronx Warriors" and "The New Gladiators" (they also wrote the Lucio Fulci horror classics "Manhattan Baby" "The House by the Cemetary"). However, the film is hampered by lousy acting, a dull story, and terrible dubbing (though that does offer camp value). Also, the film takes a major nosedive in terms of pacing once the main character comes across a community of wastelanders. From there, it's a bunch of boring talk about how they can get more water and nothing much of interest. That is until the final's climactic road battle, which although nothing spectacular and plays out more like a demolition derby than a coherent action sequence is still a step above most low budget warriors of the wasteland films of this ilk. Overall, far from a classic, but solidly enjoyable if you enjoy this sort of disreputable film genre.

My review was written in January 1985 after watching the movie on Thorn EMI video cassette.

"The Exterminators of the Year 3000" is a weak imitation of "The Road Warrior" hit. In unusual fashion, it opened simultaneously in the theatrical (on 42nd St.) and home video market, with meager prospects in either medium.

After a plotless opening reel of old cars chasing around (though set in the year 3000, pic populated with well--preserved models from the 1960s and 1970s), story concerns the search for water in a post-nuclear wasteland. Teamed up are the handsome hero Alien (Robert Jannucci), a petty girl he used to know named Trash (Alicia Moro) and a cute bionic boy Tommy (Luca Ventantini). Tommy's dad was murdered by the big baddie Crazy Bul, who leads a gang of bikers whom he tastefully calls "Mother grabbers" in the poorly-dubbed dialog when not shouting out quaint expressions such as "Let's purloin that water".

When Tommy loses a biomechanical arm, they go to an ex-astronaut Papillon (Alan Collins) to fix it. Papillon has already fixed Alien's souped-up stolen car which is called the Exterminator. Baddies are defeated and pic ends with the star trio frolicking in the first rainfall in years, though the Earth's ozone layer has been destroyed by nuclear bombs making for cloudless skies.

Pic has little to offer beyond okay stunts and action footage. Oddly anticipating "Road Warrior II's" casting of Tina Turner, veteran black actress in Continental productions Beryl Cunningham is cast as a vicious killer in Crazy Bull's gang.

In Water World, they have too much water and are looking for Dry Land. In this flick, there's too much dry land and not enough water. If there is such a thing called a Road Warrior genre, you would find this film in that section. The screenplay to this film was probably 20 pages long. Most of the film has truck and car chases with explosions and gun fights. A typical post nuclear holocaust sci-fi film with bad actors. this film could have used ten more years of development.